SPIDERworks

BY TRACY SCHLAPP

But violence can be replaced by restoration. Fortunately, I come from that background where we repaired the damage on the tapestries and the idea of repairing has stayed with me. Things can be repaired. I do not believe in the Phoenix, that things die and resuscitate. I am rather areligious. But I have some faith in the symbolic action. Wanting to repair the past involves the experience of guilt, and guilt is present in all my work.

LOUISE BOURGEOIS, from The Spider and the Tapestries

In workshops at Oregon State Penitentiary and around the state, we read the passage from Louise Bourgeois and poured over images in art books we shared. We described the impact of standing under her monumental spider sculpture Maman, looking up on a bright blue day in the courtyard of Crystal Bridges in Arkansas — imagine an enormous black belly 30 feet in the sky, surrounded by a cage of Maman’s eight spindly legs. We discussed themes of recreation and rebirth that fill the tapestry sculpture pictured in The Fabric Works catalog. A few of our writers saw the screening of the documentary The Spider, The Mistress, and the Tangerine that we aired at OSP on the prison-wide movie channel during our feminist film series in 2020.

Simply put, she makes sense — this wiry, opinionated, crafty, spider woman. Bourgeouis moves gracefully through the bars of prison. Her very cell installations articulate the caged reality of life inside. There is beauty — softness, hand, and color next to twisted smokey metal that makes her a friendly companion to our work writing about guilt, restoration, repair, and atonement.

We started with a central idea of replacing violence by restoration through weaving with a tapestry needle.

Aldo Antunez connected the passage above to his experience working on the activities floor at OSP: “Weaving in everyday life. Different cultures. Different races. All living in the same place. All having time to practice what they believe in. Sharing the same space. Weave into time slots throughout the day.”

Our quietest participant, Brittain McAuliffe, attends our workshop with a pencil in hand while he makes intricate drawings, nose inches from the paper. During the session, we were delighted to collect this: “When I just now thought to write of weaving, I got an image of my life. The patchwork of strands ranging so far and different from one another, and yet have found one another side-by-side. Woven as one, they make up what is today my reality, my life. This patchwork is my mark on the world. Now is time to study the weave, to better weave the future. I will be done. We know it can be. Just as the people have studied and worked to weave more beauty. My prayer today is to ask the people who have crossed and those sharing the world yet, to help me master a tighter weave.”

Ezekiel Simms-Barlow connects to his past: “weaving reminds me of a time, I was at culture camp in Siletz. When I was taught how to weave a basket, for the first time. It was warm, but not too warm with a nice breeze that I feel only in my hometown — it brings me back home walking in the woods.” Like Ezekiel, Matt Reyes connects to the basket weaving traditions of his people.

Harley Boitz-Johnson wrote of his love of weaving in and out of traffic in high-speed, his face lights describing the exhilaration of moving freely through the world.

It is R. Miranda who has us look at what we are repairing. He puts his pen to consider the very tear of the fabric in Weave, Repair, Reconnect.

And finally, Stressla Lynn Johnson wrote: “think about the natural bonds that hold things together. The lattices of atoms that combine to make molecules for skins and pelts. The weaving of man-made structure for blankets, clothing, and shelter. The weaving ofhumanity creating the tapestries of communities. Bonding and held together by the weaving of ideas sharing of ancestral knowledge and culture. Healing the generational wounds that tear and rip the fabric of our common goals of protecting the children. The fabric of all that is woven together because of the natural bonds of now ... “

As we shared the writing in our workshop, Stressla collected a list of words and phrases that resonated with him. From this list, he created a series of poems, including Listen For and 110-93. We encourage our writers to gather and borrow what they hear from each other to fuel their next work.

WEAVING
GUILT/SHAME
REPAIR
TECHNOLOGY
SCARF
WEAR/TEAR
BASKET
CULTURE
SHADOWS
OBSTICLES
PATCHWORK
STUDY THE WEAVE
IN AND OUT
CAUGHT
SHARING
COMMON GROUND
GRASS
MUSIC
DRINK
STRANDS
TIGHTER
1, 2, 3

Perhaps there is something in this list for you? | TDS